The present invention relates to a reel structure, and more particularly to a two-piece reel structure. Each half of the reel structure is provided at a bottom plane of a central shaft portion thereof with a plurality of alternately spaced engaging means and receiving holes. The engaging means on a first half reel is adapted to extend through the receiving hole on a second half reel to easily and firmly connect the two half reels to each other to provide a complete reel.
Elongated tapes, such as magnetic tapes and films, are usually wound around a reel for storage of the tapes. A reel generally includes a central shaft portion and two diameter-expanded circular walls attached to two ends of the shaft portion.
Taiwan New Utility Model Patent Application No. 86210602 discloses a tape reel assembled from two similar female discs and a male shaft. The female disc each includes a central shaft hole, along an outer periphery thereof three sets of arcuate slots and locating holes are provided for engaging with three hooks and three locating tenons, respectively, provided on the male shaft. In this design, three components, namely, two female discs and one male shaft are needed to form a complete reel and it is inconvenient to assemble these three components to one another. Moreover, the three components occupy considerable large space that causes difficulty in storing the components.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,534 discloses a two-piece reel structure. In this invention, each half of the two-piece reel includes an inward depressed shaft portion. On each shaft portion, there is provided with lugs and locking lips for locking two halves of the reel into one unit. An advantage of this prior art is that the half reels before assembling could be stacked for easy storage and conveyance. And, only one mold is needed to produce the two halves of the reel and therefore largely reduces the manufacturing cost of the reel. However, the lugs of the reel of this prior art are staggered on the two halves of the reel that necessitates alignment of both lugs in one set with adjoining sliding grooves to assemble the two halves together. That is, there are two force-applying points created in assembling the two lugs with their corresponding sliding grooves. When there are six sets of lugs to be assembled, there shall be total twelve force-applying points. The assembling of the two halves of reel is therefore difficult. Moreover, the lugs and the sliding grooves are small in dimensions and the lugs tend to have inaccurate inclinations when they are molded, causing problems in smooth assembling of the two halves of the reel. Another problem with the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,534 is that the locking lip each has a reversed U-shaped cross section for extending into a corresponding hole and being locked thereto. Due to the reversed U shape, the locking lip has poor flexibility and therefore requires large pressure to force it into the corresponding hole.
It is therefore desirable to develop a reel structure that can be easily and firmly assembled from minimum components.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a two-piece reel structure in which two halves of the reel can be quickly assembled to one another through easy alignment and engagement of perpendicular hook portions on a first half with corresponding receiving holes on a second half to form a complete reel.
Another object of the present invention is to provide the above two-piece reel structure in which elastic tongue portions are included in locking means provided on each half of the reel, so that locking of two halves of the reel together through the locking means can be achieved with reduced efforts.
A further object of the present invention is to provide the above two-piece reel structure in which the receiving holes and the hook portions have curved longitudinal edges to allow smooth turning of two halves of the reel relative to each other for the hook portions to locate in the receiving holes at a locked position. A still further object of the present invention is to provide the above two-piece reel structure in which the two halves of the reel before assembling can be stacked to save space needed for storage and conveyance of the reel.